THE NEW YORKER men in the trade to have around than he. " T HE GREAT MOMENT" is a fus- tian title for what seemed to, me a very entertaining picture. I note that some of the boys in the local jury box have reproved Preston Sturges, its author and director, for stepping out of his class and at the same time cheapening the tradition of stately medical film biographies like "Pasteur," but I don't see myself why a good comic artist like Sturges should be re- stricted in subject matter or how the tradition of film biographies of all kinds can be influenced for anything but the better by "The Great Moment." There are a deadly weight and solemnity, a consciously "worth-while" quality, about most such tributes, particularly of the Paul M uni school, that choke the life out of them. Even their light touches are elephantine, like the little jokes .of clergymen and headmasters. "The Great Moment," taking some liberties with history but keeping its characters alive and human, deals with the life, times, and experim'ents of Dr. W. T. G. Morton, the homespun Yankee den- tist who stumbled onto the use of ether as an anesthetic in his desire to pull fangs painlessly. The picture is funny before everything else, yet the lesson of scientific progress against odds is as truth- fully and movingly pointed here as any- where in the heavy-handed "Pasteur" cycle. As usual, Mr. Sturges is a deft caster. Joel McCrea and Betty Field are properly commonplace and fallible as the dentist and his puzzled wife; Julian T ånnen and William Demarest are richly amusing as, respectively, .a skeptical, hectoring savant and an in- nocent toothache victim who finds a career as a guinea pig. If it does noth- ing more, "The Great Moment" shows clearly that film biographies need not wear stuffing in their shirts. T HIS is quite a ventriloquist's groove that Hollywood has got into now, asking itself "Should girls Inarry service men? " and replying, with ill-concealed emotion, "Absolute- ly, brother. It's the big and beautiful thing to do." The latest recording of the patter is "The Very Thought of You," with Dennis Morgan and Elea- nor Parker.... "Marthe Richard," French with English subtitles, speaks well of a virtuous lady spy of the war before this one. . . . "V -1, the Robot Bomb," nine minutes long, is British, workmanlike, and informative. -JOHN LARDNER , f.. .,..... :M . .... '" <.;.:.:. "::::-. : * . ".. .. ....... ::: :.=::: .:: =::: :::::.._.:.,::: : '. ttJlt.: '\, if:' . : : if :::.:.. ::":=;....::: .:-:-v...:. .:.: :.: :::: . : :Mi'!! '; ]il: ; : ::t:::.::: :\( :: ::" ::':: ':: ::: tl : _.::. ::: :-;. .<'. :?:, : .:: f::.;::::) ;: f % :.;.:.,.:.;.' .";':".':';' p . i';: 'f \ . : : t.tà ::':':;::;;::: l{t(:::::::::::::t ' :.::.: . ' %S;'t: i l\Iew Shoes. Ever walk all day in the rain, sleep when you can with your shoes on, for a solid seven days or more? . . . Winter is wet and cold in Northern France and Western Germany. Belgium and Holland have hundreds of square miles of semi-swamp. Wet shoes get stiff, split their seams, lose their soles, are scrap in a month or so. Northern Italy's mountain passes are partial to snow, with sharp stones underfoot, unhealthy for shoes. In the Pacific, you step off the LC into water, waist high, keep stepping on sharp coral, coarse sand, jungle muck, rock ridges, with rain an added feature every day, as long as the Japs last. And sometimes the Japs last longer than the shoes. GI shoes can be a very satisfactory Christmas present to Joes who need 79 :-=-;.:. .:*: ç;; . \ :::: . : : :. :. r :: :. : : ;. :. i '?{t;. . ::: ::::::"::::: .:.:.:.:...... :::::::.:: ::: ... )rlt%< :::'. . . .:::=: :...::i* r:'\) ":-: :.:.:- J1: ;,=::::ø.; t.< . I -:-:.: >>::::'. . iL':i :::!:::;:,%-,,:,:, :':M . .::; i Æ;:; ! : : . f . , [ . ': . : : :. . :; .. :\'-i _....- . '.: "t:.: 't ;. ':'.;;:f 1: , I: '.:::=.:: ;:::::: ' 1 r ::::: :".': _k]:;..;:i:!: If: :0 'V' , 0.::(: ..ytßj'lØ::; ";.; ...-:.:.::..... ::::. :: :":: ;:':::::.. ";;;:; .Jwr:: :) ...:#f::.... '" '. . . for Christmas! shoes to stay in business. So let's send them shoes. . . and a Merry Christmas, circumstances permitting. And shells, overcoats, ammo belts for .50 calibre machine guns, K and. C rations, gas, grenades, and bombs to keep the B-24s busy. . . with the Merry Christmas! SENTIMENT is fine, but it can't stop sniper bullets, star shells, spitting tanks, squareheads and Sons of Heaven. The boys can shove on and settle this war quick, if we keep sending the stuff without stopping, stinting, or sparing. Without stinting the War Bonds, or without sparing ourselves! That's our best sentiment! This suggestion may sound a little crude, but have you ever heard a battle? Battles are our biggest business this year. Sen timen ts are good forever' PITNEY.BOWES POSTAGE METER COMPANY, STAMFORD, CONN. ... with no business interest in slwes . . . hut the originators of Metered Mail, and world's largest manufacturer of þostage meters . . . still largely devoted to war production, but beginning again to make postage meters . . . and new jobs for returning servicemen